And I mean free not as in “Free Beer” but more akin to free as “being able to roam endlessly”.
And why do I say that? Because of this:
Random comment on David Foster Wallace’s Video on YT: “I remember a quote of him, something along the lines of ‘…in the society we live in, people drug and sedate themselves to make the realities which would otherwise be unbearable, at least manageable…’”
The issue isn’t a thing with people, but the conditions and situations in which they find themselves in. The error wouldn’t be in using antidepressants or other kinds of meds to make reality tolerable, but the full picture of the matter that reality in itself seems intolerable and we then need these artificial gimmicks to make us barely functional. (Or otherwise we would starve to death - with no work, no homes…)
But I digress… Birds, on the other hand, have no need for psychoactive substances to make their realities toil free. (in reality these realities aren’t toil free because of drogs, it is just that our system does not go haywire in anxiety and demise because of being in a lowered state) - Birds go their merry way, flying up in the sky and adjuncting the view of a sunset in compass with the wavering golden-blue sky.
They roam, while we do our part in the struggles of society, to make ends meet, to stay alive, to support our families, to be in sync with everyday demands.
Birds are free, so then why aren’t we?
Have we created such a professional conundrum in which we put ourselves in day-in, day-out, because we must be someone in society. Because one must win in the corporate game, and climb up the ladder… Who the hell did put that goddammned ladder there in the first place? One could want none of that. It would still be a life worthwhile pursuing, wouldn’t it?
We tend to fall for the rat-race, millenials, gen Z’s, gen Alphas, rotted or not rotted… We tend to forget that even if we win the rat race, we are still rats. And even so, considering about this now, maybe the rotting of our cognitive abilities is a direct by product of the incomprehensible ways in which we need to find ourselves alive today?
Don’t get me wrong, birds might be free, but they don’t have as much of the possibilities that we do. Now, I consider the following question: does the unsurmountable ammount of possibilities which we have in our ways, the virtual realities and whatevermore that plague the modern civilization, at all, tend to leave us more free? Or do they enslave us?
Are we… free? To roam? To live as muchas we would like to? Our lives at most will cap at 100 yo, if we are lucky, and even if we do, which quality of live will there be? In a world like ours? Deteriorating slowly? How so…?
But even more, if we then just leave things as they are, let the rot take place and do not fight back somehow, it will not even matter if birds are free or we are slaves of our own doing.
we might need to work to pay our bills, rent and whatnot, to be alive in this world, but our mind, my friends, our minds are still ours, if we let them be. We are still free to think if we decouple ourselves a little from our smartphones, if we give up the FOMO for a while, if we accept that it is okay no not be spearheading any sort of incremental technological change in society.
Do we really need all of that? When we are constantly offloading all of our thinking and critical skills to machines, what will be left of us? We are free to imagine our future possibilities but not for long if we are devoured by the very creations of our doing.
Take a moment to pause. To think. To look over the window and see how the birds are free, and to ponder that you, too, still have this incredible ability to think, and craft things upon that thinking, if so you wish.
Do not go gentle into that good night, folks.
We still need one another to roam this world and, hopefully, build better things for the future.
Paece.